Rating the RNC speeches

8/30/12 5:22 AM EDT

It took half the convention, but the GOP finally got its mojo Wednesday evening with a handful of speeches that snapped the party out of its Tampa stupor.

Here’s an assessment of the best and worst from Day 2 of the Republican convention:

Paul Ryan

Forget about the debt downgrade issue, the Simpson-Bowles sleight of hand and the date the Janesville GM plant actually closed. Never mind the lack of specifics on Medicare.

This was a political speech, not a policy seminar, and style, tone and rhetoric mattered as much as anything else. By those measures, Ryan scored big.

What the Republican Party and the television audience saw was a youthful politician who was comfortable in his own skin. There were no hokey lines, no obvious signs of overcoaching. Ryan displayed the seriousness of purpose required of a 42-year-old vice presidential nominee yet also showed a lighter side by joking about his ticket mate’s taste in music.

In one deftly written and delivered 35-minute speech, he accomplished something that has eluded Mitt Romney over the course of two presidential campaigns: he showed convincing passion, humanity and genuineness, essential traits for a candidate whose stock in trade is austerity politics.

Ryan’s address suggested he knows how to level sharp attacks and to throw red meat to the GOP’s various constituencies — but without the edge that scares off independents and suburban voters. It explains why he was able to thrive as a conservative in a decidedly unconservative congressional district.

The lack of policy detail won’t matter in the campaign homestretch — presidential elections aren’t won and lost on specifics. Rather, they are decided on the ability to articulate or defend a vision, which is what Ryan needed to prove he could do. On that count, the Wisconsin congressman succeeded.

His party — and every candidate up and down the GOP ticket — needed to hear the outline of how he would defend the Ryan budget plan and what made him worth the downside political risk. The speech was a solid step in the right direction.

Susana Martinez

As a Hispanic female governor, Martinez is a treasured asset in a party that suffers from a lack of diversity. Her national prospects have been talked about almost from the day she took office as governor of New Mexico.

To her credit, Martinez stayed away from artifice and the temptation to tailor her style to a broader audience. The speech was workable and advanced her standing. If the goal was to burnish her image and remain in the national conversation, Martinez met the bar.

Tim Pawlenty

If Mitt Romney’s veep shortlist consisted of Ryan, Pawlenty and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Wednesday’s speeches suggested he made the right call.

Portman and Pawlenty fell flat; Ryan delivered the best speech of the convention to date.

Pawlenty’s beginning and end showed promise. Everything in between was forgettable.

Unlike some other speakers, the Minnesota governor at least spent time extolling the GOP nominee’s virtues. But wave after wave of canned lines drained the life from Pawlenty's address.

Rand Paul

James Madison, Justices Thomas and Scalia, Rand Paul’s wife, grandfather and great grandfather, the Taing family, The Great American Donut Shop, a “certain congressman from Texas,” a sailor named John Mooney, Hung and Thuan Tringh, Mr. Exxon Mobil, author Paul Kengor, Ronald Reagan, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford all got name-checked before Mitt Romney.

That gives you an idea of where Rand Paul was coming from.

The Kentucky senator won’t win any plaudits for being a team player, but his address was nevertheless effective in what it was intended to do: position Paul as a presidential prospect. While he embraced his father’s principles, he articulated his vision in a far more polished fashion than the Texas congressman and packaged it in a speech designed to reach a broader audience.

If the goal was to advance his cause toward 2016, he managed to do that.

Mike Huckabee

The former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate picked up where he left off in 2008. The first truly engaging speaker of the evening, Huckabee managed to warm up the crowd for the marquee speeches to come.

Whatever bad blood once existed between Huckabee and Romney, there was no sign of it Wednesday. Huckabee was gracious in his support of the nominee — he even complimented Romney’s wife Ann on her speech — and praised Romney from the get-go. Most important, he vouched for Romney with evangelicals

Condoleezza Rice

Rice delivered one of least overtly partisan speeches yet still managed to give one of the best-received speeches of the convention. While her focus on foreign policy and America’s place in the world was a departure from the standard convention fare, Rice quickly won the convention crowd and moved them with her description of the ascent of a little girl from the Jim Crow South.

The former secretary of state has downplayed any future political aspirations but a few more speeches like the one she gave Wednesday will stoke the fires.

Pam Bondi and Sam Olens

Olens, the Georgia attorney general, needs a new agent.

Why either of the two attorneys general who helped lead the legal fight against the Obama health care plan thought a tag-team approach would be effective is open to question. But while Florida rising star Bondi didn’t do herself any favors, Olens came out even worse.

Olens paled next to the more polished and camera-savvy Bondi, and compounded the awkwardness with his monotone, straight-off-the-teleprompter reading.